AI waiters and hosts: what you can buy in 2026

The products sold as AI waiters and AI hosts each do one part of the job. A menu assistant answers dish questions on the guest's phone. A table tablet takes reorders and payment. A phone agent books tables and takes takeout orders. A serving robot carries plates. People still greet, seat, read the table and fix problems, and the vendors below say as much on their own pages.

So the useful question is which part of your servers' or hosts' shift eats the most time. The table matches each product type to that part, using only what each vendor publishes.

What AI waiter and host products exist?

Type	Example and what the vendor says it does	Limit the vendor states	Start here if
Assistant inside the QR menu	IAMenu's AI Waiter answers dish, allergen and diet questions in the guest's language and suggests dishes	It suggests and the guest taps to order; allergen data must be checked by a person first	Guests keep asking servers what is in each dish
Tabletop tablet	Ziosk tablets handle ordering, pay at the table, loyalty and guest surveys	No public price; each system is quoted	Tables wait too long for the check
Phone host	Yelp Host answers calls, books and changes tables and takes takeout orders	Transfers to your staff number when it cannot answer; the Basic plan has call limits	The host stand spends the rush on the phone
Phone host	Slang answers calls, manages reservations and alerts staff on topics such as private dining	Forwards the call to staff or texts contact details when it cannot answer	Most calls are about bookings in OpenTable or SevenRooms
Serving robot	Bear Robotics' Servi runs food and busses tables	Built to assist staff; 66 lb load across its trays	Servers walk long routes between kitchen and floor
Serving robot	Pudu's BellaBot delivers food and interacts with guests	Handles slopes up to 5 degrees; 40 kg load	You have wide, level aisles and a long dining room
Voice kiosk at the counter	Maple's kiosk takes a spoken order and builds the cart on screen	Early access; a staff-help button on every screen	You run counter service with long modifier lists

What does an AI waiter inside the menu do?

IAMenu sells QR menu software and describes its AI Waiter as an assistant that lives inside the menu the guest has already opened. It reads the live menu, including price variants and reviewed allergen labels, and replies in the guest's language. IAMenu says its assistant only suggests dishes, and the guest taps to order. It also tells restaurants to verify every allergen against recipes, suppliers and cross-contact procedures before publishing.

IAMenu publishes its own tests for this kind of tool. Before you switch one on, try them on your phone:

1. Remove a dish from the menu, then ask the assistant for a recommendation.
2. Write to it in a language neither you nor the menu uses.
3. Ask it to add something to your order and read the reply closely.
4. Say you are vegetarian and see what it offers.
5. Ask about the music or the chef, and check that it admits what it does not know.
6. Ask the price of an item sold in two sizes.

What does a tabletop tablet add?

A tablet on the table lets guests reorder a drink or pay without waiting for a server. Ziosk says its tablets cover pay at the table, ordering, loyalty and guest feedback, with AI-powered reports on what is working across locations. It lists POS integrations with Aloha, Oracle, Micros, Positouch, Rezku and Xpient, and says it is not a payment processor. Ziosk prints no price; it says costs vary and it quotes each restaurant.

Before you buy, time how long your tables wait for the check and for a second drink on a busy night. Those are the waits a tablet shortens.

What does an AI host on the phone do?

An AI host usually means an agent on the restaurant's phone line. Yelp Host answers calls, books tables, answers questions from your Yelp page and takes phone orders. If it cannot answer or the guest asks for a person, it transfers the call to a number you set. Yelp says Host pricing starts at $249 per month after a free period of up to 30 days, and its pricing page says the Basic plan has call limits. In July 2026 Yelp added OpenTable reservations and pickup ordering into POS systems through Stream, and quoted $199 per month for Yelp Guest Manager customers.

Slang says it answers every inbound call, manages reservations and connects with OpenTable, SevenRooms, Tripleseat and Yelp. When it cannot answer a question, it says it forwards the call to a staff member or texts the caller contact details. Our Slang review and pricing page covers its plans.

Maple Pro, which books, changes and cancels reservations on OpenTable and takes phone orders into supported POS systems, costs $350/month billed monthly or $220/month billed yearly on the pricing page. Before you pick any phone host, run the tests in the reservation call-testing guide.

What can a serving robot carry?

A serving robot follows a mapped route between the kitchen and the tables. Bear Robotics says Servi carries 22 lb per tray and 66 lb in total, works a 12-hour shift on a 4-hour charge and is NSF-certified. In its own FAQ it says Servi is designed to assist staff and leaves hospitality and guest contact to employees.

Pudu's spec sheet for BellaBot lists a 40 kg maximum load, 10 kg per tray, a climbing angle of 5 degrees or less and 13 hours of battery life with no load. Ramps, thresholds and narrow gaps between tables decide whether a robot fits your room, so test it at full seating. Our restaurant robots tracker lists which chains use them and which projects stopped.

How do you pick the right one?

Spend one busy shift noting what your servers and hosts do. Then match the biggest job to a product type.

1. Count phone calls the host stand answers or misses during the rush. A high count points to a phone host.
2. Count trips from kitchen to table and back per server. Long routes point to a serving robot.
3. Time how long tables wait for the check. Long waits point to a tablet.
4. Note how often guests ask about ingredients and allergens. Frequent questions point to a menu assistant, once your allergen data is checked.
5. For each option, ask the vendor for the price in writing, what staff do when it stops, and how it connects to your POS or booking system.

Maple builds voice AI for restaurants: phone answering and ordering today, with a voice kiosk and drive-thru unit in early access. The voice kiosk guide covers counter service.

Published by Maple. This AI-assisted guide describes each product only from its maker's own website, help pages or blog, linked above. Maple sells phone answering and ordering and an early-access voice kiosk. We did not test the other products, and the guide does not promise any result from them.